3 Key Reasons Note Taking Benefits Blogging

Call me old school, but my approach to blogging and writing original digital content goes back to my handy dandy “Reporter’s Notebook.” As a veteran newspaper and magazine reporter, writer and editor, I keep notebooks in my country Western totes, around the farmhouse and in the glove compartment of my Ford Mustang. This traditional means of gathering key information applies to modern-day bloggers, too:

Note taking affords tabling ideas: Sometimes you have a cool idea for a blog post but limited time or resources to pull the content and images together right then and there. Jotting down your ideas saves the information. Yes, you can store your thoughts into your smartphone or iPad, but that leads to my next point…

Note taking jogs, builds the memory: The simple act of writing down blog ideas actually activates the brain and trains it to start memorizing information. In fact, a study published in Psychological Science by Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles, found that the act of longhand note taking improves learning and retention, and looking back at notes is a form of learning. During my K-12 and collegiate days, note taking helped this “A” student remember and organize my thoughts, which goes into the last blogging benefit…

Note taking organizes thoughts, content: Writing down broad ideas, names, places, etc., then going back and filling in details to the topic already arranges blog posts for you. Basically, you’ve developed the skeleton of your piece and just need to add supporting text — colorful quotes and/or relatable research — to give the post va-va-voom and validity.

What do you use to take notes for your blog? Are you a notepad on your phone type of girl or a paper and pen old school girl?